AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW 1230 1231 Absi and is suspected of having been a member of Katibat al-Battar, a militia in Syria associated with 1232 IS, and an IS military commander. Other members of the Paris cell who had travelled overseas seeking 1233 1234 1235 combat experience or training included Chakib Akrouh, Bilal Hadfi, Sami Amimour, Omar Ismail 1236 1237 Mostefai, and Foued Mohammed Aggad. Of the men who would go on to strike Brussels in March 2016, Najim Laachraoui, was described as a “suspected ISIL commander” who travelled to Syria in 1238 2013, while Ibrahim Bakraoui travelled to Turkey in June 2015, and was identified as “a potential 1239 foreign fighter” intending to travel to Syria. A number of the group’s associates also travelled to Syria, 1240 1241 1242 including Osama Krayem, Mohamed Abrini, and Mohamed Belkaid. In addition, those involved in the recruitment of some of the network’s senior members also had experience of overseas conflict, including Khalid Zerkani, who has been described as a veteran of Afghan 1243 jihad, Abderrahmane Ameroud, who reports claim travelled to an al-Qaeda training camp in 1244 1245 Afghanistan in 1999, and Fatima Aberkan, who is thought to have travelled to Syria in 2013 and 2014. 1246 A number of the wider network members also spent time in Syria, including Gelel Attar, Sami 1247 1248 Zarrouk, and Reda Kriket, while two members of the so-called Verviers cell were claimed as former members by Katibat al-Battar.1249 3.8 Petty Crime and Fraud and Forgery The extensive criminal history of members of the networks which struck Paris and Brussels over the past 1250 18 months has led to members being referred to as a “new type of jihadist: part terrorist, part gangster”, yet this history of petty crime is not new or unique to the Brussels-Paris network, nor to Islamist terrorists more widely. In the UK it can be found in the biographies of prominent paramilitaries in Northern Ireland 1251 1252 such as Loyalists Lenny Murphy and Billy Wright, and Republican Martin McGartland. It can also be found in the backgrounds of 7/7 plotters Hasib Hussain, cautioned for shoplifting, and Shehzad ! ! 1230 ‘Security Council Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee Adds Names of Four Individuals and Two Entities to Its Sanctions List’, United Nations Meetings Coverage and Press Releases, 29 September 2015. 1231 Van Vlierden, G., ‘PROFILE: PARIS ATTACK RINGLEADER ABDELHAMID ABAAOUD’, Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, 15 December 2015. 1232 Allen, P., ‘Female jihadi in Paris attacks died of 'asphyxiation', say prosecutors - as her family sue French police claiming she was murdered by police’, Daily Mail Online, 21 January 2016; and Winsor, M., ‘Is Abdelhamid Abaaoud Dead? Top ISIS Military Commander, Alleged Paris Attacks Mastermind Killed In Saint- Denis Raid’, International Business Times, 19 November 2015, available at: http://www.ibtimes.com/abdelhamid-abaaoud-dead-top-isis-military-commander- alleged-paris-attacks-mastermind-2191696. Both last visited: 9 August 2016. 1233 Drozdiak, N. and Matthias Verbergt, ‘Paris-Attack Suspect Traveled to Syria in 2013’, The Wall Street Journal, 15 January 2016. 1234 Farmer, B. et al., ‘Who is Salah Abdeslam and who were the Paris terrorists? Everything we know about the Isil attackers’, The Telegraph, 18 March 2016. 1235 ‘Paris attacks: Samy Amimour, the ‘nice guy’ who became a jihadi’, Financial Times, 19 November 2015. 1236 Newton-Small, J., ‘Paris Attacker Is an Example of France’s Homegrown Terrorists’, Time, 15 November 2015; and ‘Profile: Omar Ismail Mostefai’, BBC News, 15 November 2015. 1237 ‘Paris attacks profile: Foued Mohamed-Aggad’, BBC News, 9 December 2015. 1238 Holehouse, M., ‘El-Bakraoui brothers: Who are the suicide bombers Khalid and Brahim behind the Brussels attacks?’, Daily Telegraph, 25 March 2016. 1239 Henley, J. and Kareem Shaheen, ‘Suicide bombers in Brussels had known links to Paris attacks’, Guardian, 23 March 2016. 1240 ‘Osama Krayem: Swedish jihadist linked to Brussels bombings charged with 'terrorist murder' over Paris attacks’, Independent, 20 April 2016; and Watkinson, W, ‘Brussels attack: Who is Osama Krayem the jihadi from Malmo arrested with 'Man in the Hat'?’, International Business Times, 10 April 2016. 1241 Newton, J. et al., ‘Terror suspect seen driving with Salah Abdeslam two days before Paris massacre had previously visited Syria, Belgian authorities reveal’, Daily Mail Online, 26 November 2015. 1242 ‘Dead Brussels gunman wanted to be ISIS suicide bomber’, New York Post, 19 March 2016. 1243 ‘At least 8 suspects are at large with links to attacks in Brussels, Paris’, CNN, 28 March 2016. 1244 Van Vlierden, G., ‘The Zerkani Network: Belgium’s Most Dangerous Jihadist Group’, The Jamestown Foundation, 12 April 2016; and ‘Nouvelle reconduite vers l'Algérie’, Le Parisien, 29 July 2005. 1245 Van Vlierden, G., ‘The Zerkani Network: Belgium’s Most Dangerous Jihadist Group’, The Jamestown Foundation, 12 April 2016. 1246 Malm, S., ‘Pictured: Belgian terror suspect 'with direct links' to Paris attackers who trained with Bataclan mastermind in Syria is arrested in Morocco’, Daily Mail Online, 18 January 2016. 1247 Dalton, M., ‘Investigators Home In on Scope of Terror Network Behind Brussels, Paris Attacks’, The Wall Street Journal, 4 April 2016. 1248 ibid. 1249 Dalton, M., ‘Two Killed in Belgian Terror Raid Linked to Militants in Syria’, The Wall Street Journal, 3 February 2015. 1250 Faiola, A. and Souad Mekhennet, ‘The Islamic State creates a new type of jihadist: Part terrorist, part gangster’, The Washington Post, 20 December 2015. 1251 ‘Billy Wright: the loyalist assassin too violent for his comrades’, Belfast Telegraph, 15 September 2010, available at: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/billy-wright-the-loyalist-assassin-too-violent-for-his-comrades-28558895.html, last visited: 9 August 2016. 1252 ‘IRA informer accuses police of abandoning him to die’, The Guardian, 22 April 2015, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/apr/22/ira- informer-police-abandon-die, last visited: 9 August 2016. ! ! 97 !